Korea Plans to Lead Hydrogen-Fuelled Ship Development

May 10, 2019 | Korea: Busan | Source: Korean Register of Shipping

In order to promote sustainable growth in the shipbuilding and maritime sector, the Korean Register of Shipping (KR) has decided to develop hydrogen ship technologies in full cooperation with the government’s Roadmap for Activating Hydrogen Economy. In January, the government declared its intention to take the lead in the hydrogen economy by announcing this roadmap.

The roadmap provides direction to diagnose the domestic and overseas hydrogen industry as a whole and to move toward becoming the world’s leading hydrogen economy leader.

In line with this trend, Korean shipbuilders are participating in establishing a hydrogen technology roadmap with experts from industry, academia, and industry in various fields. In the future, they will be involved in various research and development including propulsion of hydrogen fuel cells, tanks for hydrogen storage and transportation It is a policy to actively go out.

In this roadmap, the strategies for fostering hydrogen fuel cell ships as promising future items in the shipbuilding field are divided into coastal vessels and offshore vessels. In the case of offshore vessels, verification of the marine fuel cell system should be completed by 2022, commercialization through demonstration from 2025 will be promoted, and marine vessels will be applied to ships in 2030 by promoting technology development and infrastructure at the same time.

In addition to future R & D, Korean shipbuilders plan to establish reliability and safety standards for each stage of technology development in order to lay the foundations for the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell ships as a classification society. In addition, by 2022, a safety inspection and approval system for several hundred kW of marine fuel cell systems will be established and applied immediately. By 2025, a hydrogen carrier and a base for a fuel cell system for MW class ships will be constructed.

Li Zhengji Korea Society President, said “KR has recently established a research center and is strengthening its research capabilities on hydrogen ship technology. We will make efforts to increase Korea’s position as a shipbuilding powerhouse by preemptively responding to hydrogen shipbuilding.

The Korean Register of Shipping is a not-for-profit classification society founded in South Korea offering verification and certification services for ships and marine structures in terms of design, construction and maintenance.